[BeyondtheRainbow]

I'm just curious, how many of you are directly impacted by this? (It's what is supposed to be distracting me from feeling miserable tonight).....I'm focusing on the reason that the doctors don't have time to evaluate my case because of staffing issues and realizing exactly how few psychiatrists there are. I go to a well-known hospital that most doctors would consider a major victory to work for but they can't fill this position. That says a great deal about the shortage. It also explains why several of the unit doctors at my hospital are very young. The one who left was a fellow when I was first there as a patient and then was in charge until he left several months ago.

I guess I'm impacted in a way; there is one pdoc in this area and NO WAY I'd see him. I don't think there is a pdoc that I would see in a 60 mile radius. But I've been driving to see my pdoc for so long I've never considered otherwise really. I drive 2.5 hours each way and it's totally worth it. Granted when I first saw her it was 5 minutes each way and then later 2 hours and just in the last 18 months has it been 2.5 hours because she had to stop working at a satellite location. But she's working 5 hours of driving.

Still, if things continue to not be resolved and issues like the current one happen and the fault is hers (at this point it is not hers, it is the hospital drs and has been for weeks now) I would need to change. And honestly I'd change to someone else at the same hospital because I know how poor the selection is here.

How bad is it for you? Are you forced to see a Pnurse when you don't want to? Does anyone do group appointments? Do you travel a long way? Hate the person you are stuck with?

Help me stay distracted a litte while please.

[Wanderlust90]

You only get seen by pdoc where I live if your in crisis & probably needing admission, or you know someone who can pull strings.

I don't trust my pdoc but there's only about 3 to chose from.

I miss my old pdoc. He was private not public so better suited to my needs.

I just want someone who cares. Who's gentle & who doesn't blow me off unless I'm suicidal or psychotic. Who will save me before I am.

[scatterbrained04]

My son's pdoc quit seeing patients so we got stuck with a pnurse in the practice. She's not bad, but I miss his pdoc.

[raspberrytorte]

Yes there's a shortage around here, and no one is accepting new patients! I'm pretty much stuck with who I'm seeing right now which sucks because I don't trust or like her. And I'm still sore about how she handled my clonazepam taper. For someone that eager to get everyone off of benzos she sure doesn't know how to taper people.

[HALLIEBETH87]

Yep I see np T my mg clinic. There used to be pdoc but he left. She's ok I guess

There was just an article about this on the News. In my city there is a 3-4 month wait on a referral for adults and 18 month wait for youth (!!!!!). To make matters worse, 25% of those psychiatrists are due to retire in the next five years. Meanwhile, they are cutting back on the Department of Psychiatry at the local University Med School. Not sure about elsewhere in Canada but here in Saskatchewan Psychiatry is the lowest paid specialization in medicine.

[LorrieTorrie]

It took me forever to get in with my pdoc, and he is an hour and a half away from where I live. There is one pdoc near me that accepts my insurance and I'm on the waiting list which they hope will open sometime in March. My pdoc isn't the greatest, but he's all I have for now, and he's much better than nothing.

There aren't many around here that take my insurance. I did just have one, I had him about 2 yrs, but he was a jerk and couldn't come up with anything other than zyprexa for sleep. So I asked to transfer and now I have this psych nurse. I like her so far...

[Nammu]

I didn't have a pdoc for years. When my T wanted me to see one there was one years ago that accepted my insurance but abruptly they dropped him. He was ok, not her great but he was private. The next time she thought I should see someone it took a long time and it was a place that only had interns. They really screwed up, I told them no antidepressants but they said trazodone wasn't and antidepressant and I got a lot worse. My T didn't bother to suggest a pdoc after that. During my last crisis I stopped seeing everyone including my T. Meanwhile my insurance changed the rules and no longer does single cases. I was in very bad shape and went to PES (psych emergency services) it's county- public and they see everyone. I was very surprised at the competence of the pdoc, saw him twice there then was assigned a pdoc at a satellite office. They tend to be Pdocs that are older and want to keep working but less hours than private offices without having to pay for secretaries and billing people. The ones I've had (2) have been very good.

But you know these are older ones and they are aging out new docs don't want to specialize in psych for many reasons and those that do don't want to deal with insurance woes so only accept cash. Others prefer to do the private club meds that cater to the wealthy.

In my state I think the ratio is something like one pdoc for 2000 people ---I was close 1,963 people. But I live in a major city so there's more here. There's also a shortage of GPs too.

[jacky8807]

I know my pdoc told me insurance does not bill them as a specialist which is crazy. So students are probably thinking its a lot of insurance headaches (ESPECIALLY now) to get paid lower than they should and thy don't even get the "specialist" pay

[Keegan2015]

It took a few days of online searching but I eventually found a new pdoc recently who takes my insurance. I live in a major metropolitan suburb so I guess there are more options around here (even if you have to look for them). I have yet to find a therapist though.

someone on here a few days ago was saying that psychiatry is kind of looked down upon within the medical community (no idea why) and that it is a relatively low paying, low prestige speciality to go into. Anyone else know anything about this?

[Wanderlust90]

Originally Posted by Keegan2015

It took a few days of online searching but I eventually found a new pdoc recently who takes my insurance. I live in a major metropolitan suburb so I guess there are more options around here (even if you have to look for them). I have yet to find a therapist though.

someone on here a few days ago was saying that psychiatry is kind of looked down upon within the medical community (no idea why) and that it is a relatively low paying, low prestige speciality to go into. Anyone else know anything about this?

Psychiatry is looked down upon as a lower profession by Drs in specialty areas like anaesthetics & cardiology. Those Drs & in my experience, a lot of the nurses in those specialty areas have a god complex & often egos bigger than their brains.

[Woolly Bugger]

Originally Posted by Keegan2015

It took a few days of online searching but I eventually found a new pdoc recently who takes my insurance. I live in a major metropolitan suburb so I guess there are more options around here (even if you have to look for them). I have yet to find a therapist though.

someone on here a few days ago was saying that psychiatry is kind of looked down upon within the medical community (no idea why) and that it is a relatively low paying, low prestige speciality to go into. Anyone else know anything about this?

My psychiatrist makes at least $100 per patient for a fifteen minute visit. If you multiply that by four visits per hour, 40 hours per week, and 50 weeks per year, he makes at least $800,000 per year. Even if averages only two office visits per hour, he's making a lot of dough.

[BeyondtheRainbow]

What I've been reading says that in my state psychatrists average about $185,000 per year. My state is one that is really in trouble with a large shortage of both psychiatrists and beds (some of you may remember my pathetic posts from my 30 hours waiting for a bed while stuck in the psych ER in August) when every bed in the system was full.

Is your psychiatrist one who doesn't accept insurance? Those are the doctors who are really making a big profit I think. Just the time that they don't spend dealing with paperwork makes them much more profitable. I know that the psychiatrist who left the job that has created such a backlog that I can't get into the hospital left for a job without government insurance and I think he was sick of it. Honestly I don't understand that completely; I dealt with Medicare, Medicaid and private insurances for my entire career and plain Medicare was easier because they had fewer demands for paperwork for most things. Medicaid didn't demand a lot of paperwork for most things but limited payment so much that most employers limited how much treatment we could provide which was wrong. Private insurers were the ones who tried to control everything. I once had a nurse from a private insurer yell at me because my evaluation report didn't make sense to her. It was written in medical terminology with rehabilitation wording. I was a rehab therapist and she was a nurse responsible for assigning rehab benefits. I was always a little afraid of that insurer after that.....

[jacky8807]

Rainbow I don't know when u
Left but in the last 2 years major changes and over haul on Medicare that has made it hell for healthcare system
The pdoc. That make 100$ hour that is private pay from patient
My pdoc get a little more than a quarter of that from my masshealth

[BeyondtheRainbow]

It's been a while (4.5 years) and I always forget that one of the reasons I left was Medicare adding a rule that doubled my workload easily about 4 months before I left. That rule would have finished me even if other things hadn't. I just forget about it b/c it didn't get a chance to. But that one rule was miserable.